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Gallanach, Dun An Fheurain
Dun (Iron Age)
Site Name Gallanach, Dun An Fheurain
Classification Dun (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 22954
Site Number NM82NW 9
NGR NM 82424 26577
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/22954
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilmore And Kilbride
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NM82NW 9 8244 2659.
(NM 8245 2659). Dun an Fheurain (NR) (Site of).
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
This dun occupies the top of an isolated stack situated close to the shore. The dun wall follows the margin of the summit, but apart from a few outer-facing stones on the east side, it is now reduced to a grass-covered stony bank. The dun measures internally about 23 by 12m. The entrance was probably on the NE, no approach being practical from any other direction owing to the steepness of the sides of the stack.
At the base of the stack on the west side is a midden deposit which has been excavated on a number of occasions, the finds falling into two distinct groups. The earlier group, which includes a sherd of samian ware, a bronze pin with projecting ring-head, a bronze finger-ring and a bronze strap loop, possibly by Roman origin, indicates a date about the second century AD for the building of the dun. The second group of finds, which includes an antler pottery-stamp, some bone pins with globular heads and a fragment of a composite bone comb suggest a second occupation of the site in the 6th century AD or later. Finds are in Gallanach House, the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS Accession no: HD393- 419] and Glasgow Museum.
RCAHMS 1975, visited 1968; A S Robertson 1970; J N G Ritchie 1974.
As described.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 27 August 1971.
Field Visit (June 1968)
NM 824 266. This dun occupies the top of an isolated stack, about 15m in height, which is situated close to the shore 700 m NW of Gallanach. The dun wall follows the margin of the summit area, but apart from a short stretch of outer facing-stones on the E side it is now reduced to a grass-covered stony bank. Internally the dun measures about 23 m by 12 m. The entrance was presumably on the NE, no approach being practicable from any other direction owing to the steepness of the sides of the stack. Excavations have been undertaken on several occasions, not within the dun itself but in the midden deposit at the base of the stack on the W side. A recent reassessment of the finds (PSAS, ciii (1970-1), 100-12) demonstrates that they fall into two distinct groups. The earlier group, which includes a sherd of samian ware, a bronze pin with a projecting ring-head, a bronze finger-ring and a bronze strap-loop, possibly of Roman origin, indicates a date about the 2nd century AD for the building of the dun. An antler pottery stamp, a number of bone pins with globular heads and a fragment of a composite bone comb suggest a second occupation of the site in the 6th century AD or rather later.
RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1968.
